What is Eval4Action Walk the Talk? The Eval4Action Walk the Talk drive is a platform to showcase ACTIONS you have taken by October 2021 and their RESULTS, to accelerate influential evaluation to support equitable and sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Why is Eval4Action Walk the Talk important? At the Eval4Action Commitment Drive in October 2020, 125 commitments were made to accelerate action for influential evaluation. It’s now time to showcase the delivery of these voluntary promises. All actions for influential evaluation (even those without a prior commitment) are vital to get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In line with Eval4Action objectives, this initiative hopes to inspire the evaluation community and beyond to energize evaluation advocacy at all levels, to move from promises to action and to motivate others to do the same. Learn more Who should join the Eval4Action Walk the Talk? EVERYONE. Whether you are a VOPE, evaluation professional, young and emerging evaluator, parliamentarian, government, evaluation user, academic, supporting the achievement of the SDGs and the advancement of influential evaluation in any way, you are invited to join the drive. If you made a commitment at the Commitment Drive, join Walk the Talk to show the world how you delivered your promise. If you did not make a commitment, you can join the drive too by showcasing your action. How can you get prepared? 1. Take action now Now is the opportune time to take new actions and/or accelerate your existing actions for influential evaluation. In September 2021, record a 1-minute video showcasing actions you have already taken (not actions you plan to take in the future) and their results as far as possible. In October 2021, post your video on Twitter during the drive. There is no limit to the number of videos you can post. The videos can be in any language. Read the video guide for a few tips. 2. Raise the momentum on Walk the Talk Start mobilizing your networks! If you are a global Eval4Action partner, mobilize your regional and national networks and other partners... If you are a regional Eval4Action partner, mobilize other regional stakeholders and national partners... If you are a national Eval4Action partner, mobilize your members, young and emerging evaluators, government counterparts and other actors... If you are an individual Eval4Action supporter, share this information with your networks... ...and invite them all to take action NOW to accelerate influential evaluation and post videos on their actions and results during the Walk the Talk drive in October 2021. For further information, read the FAQ sheet. Access the communications pack to prepare your contribution video for the Walk the Talk drive. It also includes communication assets to promote the drive. If you have questions, please reach out to contact@eval4action.org.

By Stefano D’Errico International Institute for Environment and Development In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and soon after, in December that year, countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change. Seven years later, the world has changed dramatically. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit economies and health systems across countries, while the climate emergency has caused environmental disruption and hazards threatening our existence on the planet. It is worth asking ourselves whether the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become unreachable targets and whether the 2030 Agenda gives us the right tools to tackle the massive challenges ahead. This blog looks at SDG 2 on ending hunger as an example of the challenges that are currently affecting follow-up and review processes of the SDGs and proposes a few ideas on how evaluation could help to overcome them. Statistics without evaluation There is no doubt that so far the most significant result achieved by the 2030 Agenda is the production of sustainable development data. Many countries, regional and international organizations are reporting impressive efforts to further develop their statistical capacity; and the number of monitoring platforms reporting sustainable development indicators is growing exponentially. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same about sustainable development evaluation. So far, only three countries – Costa Rica, Finland and Nigeria - have attempted to assess their national policies and programmes against the principles of the 2030 Agenda. Apart from political will, there are some practical challenges to evaluating sustainable development. Defining the evaluand is often the first stumbling block that evaluation commissioners need to tackle. The guidebook Evaluation to connect national priorities with the SDGs (D’Errico S. et al 2019) provides guidance on how to choose the scope by presenting the practical experience of Costa Rica, Finland and Nigeria. The second challenge relates to assessing the effects of policies and programmes across the different areas of sustainable development. How can evaluators conduct a meaningful inquiry and keep the exercise feasible at the same time? So far, only three countries – Costa Rica, Finland and Nigeria - have attempted to assess their national policies and programmes against the principles of the 2030 Agenda. Ending hunger: an example Let’s look more closely at one of the goals: SDG 2, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and promote sustainable agriculture. The UN Food System Summit that took place in July 2021 and the current estimates suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on how people access nutritious food. The pandemic has exacerbated an already alarming situation. In the last three years, the numbers of chronically malnourished people have grown to 821 million, while two billion people have been experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity. In the near future, the number of malnourished people may increase by over 130 million because of the COVID-19 crisis. Undernutrition often coexists with overweight and obesity, which are growing in all regions of the world. It is currently estimated that at least 2.28 billion adults and children are overweight. This explosive mix has been referred to as the double burden of malnutrition. The irony is that in the world there is enough food to feed 10 billion people. But the food system is under pressure from many stresses, among them: population and income growth, unsustainable agricultural expansion and production which erodes soil productivity and threatens forests, and increasing demand for animal-sourced products (IPCC chapter 5 on food security). To evaluate food security policies and programmes, we should look at food systems from the perspectives of those left behind. But policymaking narratives have often failed to include access to affordable food for low income urban and rural consumers (Cecilia Tacoli, Bill Vorley, 2015). The global debate has usually prioritised agricultural production and access to global value chains for smallholders and other producers instead of focusing on consumption, access to affordable food and sustainable agriculture. To evaluate food security policies and programmes, we should look at food systems from the perspectives of those left behind. As suggested by SDG 2 targets and by the literature on the topic, the adoption of sustainable agriculture and access to affordable food is critical to the achievement of other goals. Lessons from previous programmes and research suggest that the promotion of sustainable agriculture is key for a number of SDGs and indicators, including SDG 13 (to take urgent action to tackle climate change) and SDG 15 (to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems). Access to affordable food is key for achieving SDG 1 (to end poverty in all its form everywhere); SDG 3 (to ensure healthy lives and promote well-​being for all at all ages); and SDG 11 (to make cities and human settlements inclusive, resilient and sustainable). The good news is that the statisticians have developed useful indicators to track food prices, the presence of subsidies favouring export and the adoption of sustainable agriculture. However, while the two indicators related to consumption have an international methodology and data, the indicator tracking adoption for sustainable agriculture is still classified as tier II, which means that despite the presence of an internationally recognised methodology, data currently does not exist (SDG indicator 2.4.1). What can evaluation teach us? This lack of monitoring data shouldn’t leave us in despair, in fact, that’s where evaluation can help through a holistic assessment of food systems and their impacts on other SDGs by investigating the foundations of sustainable development (see figure 1). Figure 1: The foundations of sustainable development SDG evaluation looking at food security from the perspective of people living in poverty and exclusion can help shed light on a number of goals, and identify lessons to promote sustainable practices for food production and affordable access to food. Evaluation can fill the monitoring gap by triangulating and debating different sources of evidence. Unlike monitoring, which relies on a limited number of indicators, evaluation can look more in-depth at the coherence of policies and programmes aiming to encourage affordable sustainable agriculture. It can also draw on the knowledge of sector experts and local communities. Furthermore, to be faithful to the 2030 Agenda principles, SDG evaluation should be an opportunity to give voice to local communities who can use it as an opportunity to demand their rights to food and agroecology. SDG evaluation looking at food security from the perspective of people living in poverty and exclusion can help shed light on a number of goals, and identify lessons to promote sustainable practices for food production and affordable access to food. Most importantly a participatory evaluation can be a learning opportunity where ministries and organizations working on different issues can all learn together how to manage trade-offs between sectors and build synergies for a more sustainable and equitable future. Stefano D’Errico is head of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). He is the lead author of the guidebook, Evaluation to connect national priorities with the SDGs: a guide for evaluation commissioners and managers. Follow Stefano on Twitter or contact him via email at stefano.derrico@iied.org. If you are interested to know more about food security, follow the new blog series recently launched by IIED.

Read updates on the campaign activities and news from partners around the world. If you would like to receive the newsletter directly in your inbox, sign up to receive Eval4Action updates here. As an individual advocate or a partner network, if you have news or information to share with the Eval4Action community, please write to contact@eval4action.org.

As part of Eval4Action’s commitment to inclusivity and participation, the campaign has held seven regional consultations since its launch, to mobilize ideas and priorities across the world on accelerating influential evaluation. To further prioritize evaluation advocacy areas and action plans and build evaluation partnerships at the grassroots, the campaign with its partners is organizing several sub-regional consultations in 2021. The sub-regional consultations aim to develop more specific and nuanced action plans for promoting influential evaluation in the sub-region to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals. Sub-regional consultations will be followed by national consultations to identify national priorities to enhance the evaluation capacities at various levels. Eval4Action sub regional consultations in 2021 East and Southern Africa, 22 April 2021 West and Central Africa, 27 May 2021 South Asia, 16 June 2021 East and South East Asia, 25 June 2021 Please continue to check back here as more sub-regional, thematic and national consultations are coming up. If you are interested to organize a consultation or an event to promote influential evaluation in your region and/or country, please write to contact@eval4action.org.

The fourth Eval4Action sub-regional consultation was held in East and South East Asia on 25 June 2021, marking one year of the launch of the Eval4Action campaign in the Asia Pacific. The consultation was organized by MONEV Studio, Indonesian Development Evaluation Community, Philippines Evaluators for Development, Mongolian Evaluation Network in partnership with Asia Pacific Evaluation Association, EvalYouth Asia, SPINE and the Asia Pacific Communication Hub. At the consultation, eight commitments were made by evaluation stakeholders to accelerate influential evaluation. The consultation concluded with specific actions required to strengthen national evaluation capacities, such as: Promote National Evaluation Policies and use of evaluation in national policy making Capacity building of evaluators and governments in the region in order to conduct evaluations on the issues of national importance Support the academia to develop and conduct M&E courses Enhance country-led evaluations by increasing the ownership and involvement of local partners These prioritized actions will shape the development of a sub-regional evaluation action plan. The speakers at the event included Benedictus Dwiagus Stepantoro (Chair, InDEC), Iwan Febryanto (Head, Social Outreach and Capacity Building, MONEV Studio), Marco Segone (Director, UNFPA Evaluation Office), Gabriela Renteria Flores (Chair, EvalYouth Global Network), Andrea Cook (Co-chair, EvalPartners) and Dorothy Mae Albiento (Co-leader, EvalYouth Asia). This consultation, together with the sub-regional consultation in South Asia, have ushered in a new phase of evaluation advocacy in the region which is enhancing local action for influential evaluation. For further details, watch the consultation recording.

Read updates on the campaign activities and news from partners around the world. If you would like to receive the newsletter directly in your inbox, sign up to receive Eval4Action updates here. As an individual advocate or a partner network, if you have news or information to share with the Eval4Action community, please write to contact@eval4action.org.

On 16 June 2021, the Eval4Action third sub-regional consultation was held in South Asia to accelerate influential evaluation to support the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This sub-regional consultation is a follow up to the Eval4Action Asia regional consultation held in June 2020. The consultation provided a platform to VOPE leaders, evaluators, parliamentarians, public officials, young and emerging evaluators and other stakeholders to discuss evaluation priorities that can support the achievement of the SDGs in South Asia. The priorities emerging from the sub-regional consultation will input to the South Asian evaluation action plan for SDG delivery. The main priorities emerging from the consultation include: Ensure timely delivery of SDGs in South Asia through robust M&E systems Ensure use of evidence in Voluntary National Reviews Enhance communication of evaluation results to promote the use of evaluation Strengthen capacities and competencies of evaluators The consultation was organized by the Community of Evaluators–South Asia (CoE-SA) in partnership with the Eval4Action campaign. The speakers at the event included Chelladurai Solomon (Chairperson, CoE-SA), AK Shiva Kumar (Development Economist and Policy Advisor, India), Marco Segone (Director, UNFPA Evaluation Office), Gabriela Renteria Flores (Chair, EvalYouth Global Network), Sonal Zaveri (Board Member, CoE-SA), Jigmi Rinzin (former Member of Parliament, Bhutan) and Antony Cyriac (Deputy Director General, NITI Aayog India). For further details, watch the sub-regional consultation recording.

In full alignment with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Decade of Action, the Decade of EVALUATION for Action (Eval4Action) is mobilizing all stakeholders to scale up action for influential evaluation to support the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG Good Practice Initiative by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), has recognized Eval4Action’s evaluation advocacy as a SDG Good Practice. The specific Eval4Action initiatives selected as a SDG Good Practice include: Regional advocacy to accelerate action towards influential evaluation to support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda The regional advocacy kickstarted by the seven regional consultations has paved the way for sub-regional and national consultations to mobilize local action for influential evaluation. Learn more Co-creation of the first regional evaluation strategy in the Asia Pacific to accelerate the progress towards the achievement of the SDGs The implementation of the strategy is underway. Any organization or entity can also use and implement the strategy based on their resources. Learn more More about the SDG Good Practice Initiative: In the second open call for SDG Good Practices, success stories and lessons learned, more than 700 submissions were reviewed by a team of experts from United Nations entities. The results are available in an online database of more than 450 SDG good practices from all over the world, that are implemented by governments and stakeholders from different sectors and address the 17 SDGs.

Following the first sub-regional consultation in East and Southern Africa in April 2021, the second Eval4Action sub-regional consultation took place in West and Central Africa on 27 May 2021. The consultation provided a platform to regional and national evaluators and other stakeholders to consult on ‘What actions for influential evaluation should be prioritized to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs and the Africa We Want?’. The consultation was organized by the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), the young and emerging evaluators network of AfrEA, African Parliamentarians Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE), Réseau francophone de l'évaluation (RFE), CLEAR Anglophone Africa, CLEAR Francophone Africa, African Development Bank, African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and Twende Mbele. The speakers at the event included Samuel Kouakou (Vice President of AfrEA), Saturnin Zoetyande (Co-chair, AfrEA YEE network), Hon. Noel Rossan Goakun Toe (Member of Burkina Faso National Assembly) Abdoulaye Gounou (Chief of Evaluation Office in Benin), Bakary Kone (Director, Strategic Planning, Partnerships and Resource Mobilization at ACBF), Urbain Tsala (Chair, Cameroon Development Evaluation Association), and Mamadou Coulibaly (Vice President, RFE). The main priorities emerging from the consultation include: Building capacity on evaluation especially of young and emerging evaluators Strengthening national evaluation policies in countries in the sub-region To nurture Made in Africa evaluations The sub-regional consultations in Africa are a follow up to the Eval4Action pan African regional consultation held in December 2020. Together the priorities emerging from the sub-regional consultations will shape an African evaluation action plan for delivery of the SDGs by 2030. Watch the sub-regional consultation recording here.

Read updates on the campaign activities and news from partners around the world. If you would like to receive the newsletter directly in your inbox, sign up to receive Eval4Action updates here. As an individual advocate or a partner network, if you have news or information to share with the Eval4Action community, please write to contact@eval4action.org.

The Asia Pacific Evaluation Association together with UNFPA Evaluation Office and EvalYouth Global Network are organizing the first Eval4Action regional consultation on evaluation, COVID-19 and SDGs, to be held on 25 June 2020, 8am ET. This digital event will also mark the official launch of the campaign in the Asia Pacific region. The virtual consultation will bring together VOPE leaders, parliamentarians, government officials and development partners. The speakers include Marco Segone, Director, UNFPA Evaluation Office, Khalil Bitar, Chair of EvalYouth Global Network and Asela Kalugampitiya, President of Asia Pacific Evaluation Association. Tessie Catsambas, Former President of American Evaluation Association will moderate the consultation. UPDATE: The regional consultation recording is available here. Access the Asia Pacific regional evaluation strategy that was developed as a follow to this consultation.

The first Eval4Action regional consultation took place in the Asia Pacific region on 25 June 2020. This interactive event with over 170 participants led to rich discussions on actions required to strengthen evaluation in the region towards the achievement of the SDGs. As a follow up to the consultation, Asia Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA), EvalYouth Asia and the Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation established a committee and an advisory group to develop a Regional Evaluation Strategy based on inputs received at the consultation. The committee includes VOPEs, young and emerging evaluators, parliamentarians, evaluation network leaders, business community and development partners. The committee further engaged with stakeholders and potential partners to co-create the draft Regional Evaluation Strategy around eight themes. The eight themes are: Professionalizing evaluation Building partnerships to strengthen evaluation capacity Strengthen community engagement in evaluation Promoting Young and Emerging Evaluators Strengthening VOPEs Engaging parliamentarians for demand and use of evaluation Promoting national evaluation policies and systems Using evaluation in reporting of SDGs The draft Strategy will be presented to stakeholders in the region on 9 October 2020 and will be finalized with their inputs. A regional coalition will be developed to implement the Strategy to advance the evaluation agenda in the region towards the achievement of the SDGs. If you would like to provide inputs to the draft Asia Pacific Regional Evaluation Strategy, read the flyer for more information. Register for the event here. For further information please contact apea.secretariat@gmail.com and evalyouth.asia@gmail.com. Follow @APEAeval and @EvalyouthAsia on Twitter! Read more about Eval4Action regional consultations here.

Read updates on the campaign activities and news from partners around the world. If you would like to receive the newsletter directly in your inbox, sign up to receive Eval4Action updates here. As an individual advocate or a partner network, if you have news or information to share with the Eval4Action community, please write to contact@eval4action.org.

On 22 April 2021, the Eval4Action first sub-regional consultation was held in East and Southern Africa to support the development of the African evaluation community’s action plan towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The consultation was organized by the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), the young and emerging evaluators network of AfrEA, South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA), African Parliamentarians Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE), Réseau francophone de l'évaluation (RFE), CLEAR- Anglophone Africa and Twende Mbele. The speakers at the event included Fazeela Hoosen (Co-chair, AfrEA YEE network), Dr. Kobena Hanson (African Development Bank), Dr. Nana Opare Djan (Twende Mbele), Prof. Ian Goldman (SAMEA), Hon. Paurina Mpariwa (Member of Parliament, Zimbabwe) and Mark Mulobi (young and emerging evaluator). The event included interactive sessions where participants had an opportunity to shape priorities to promote influential evaluation in the sub-region. The main priorities emerging from the consultation include: Nurture and promote evaluation action for Made in Africa evaluations Strengthen evaluation capacity especially among young and emerging evaluators Institutionalize evaluation at the national level This sub-regional consultation is a follow up to the Eval4Action pan African regional consultation held in December 2020. In addition, a second sub-regional consultation will be held in West and Central Africa on 27 May 2021. Together the priorities emerging from the sub-regional consultations will shape an African evaluation action plan for delivery of the SDGs by 2030. Watch the sub-regional consultation recording here.

In the first of its kind social media outreach in the evaluation community, more than 700 VOPEs (Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation), EvalYouth chapters, young and emerging evaluators, parliamentarian networks, UN agencies, NGOs, the private sector, academia and others converged at the Eval4Action Tweetathon on 7 April 2021. In the lead up to the event and during it, about 14,000 tweets led to 105 million impressions, putting worldwide attention on the importance of accelerating influential evaluation in the Decade of Action. The Tweetathon also marked one year of the Eval4Action campaign. The 24-hour global conversation was kicked off by the global co-leaders UNFPA Evaluation Office, EvalYouth Global Network, Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation, and were joined by IOCE and EvalPartners. This was followed by seven Q&A regional dialogues, led by the: Asia Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA) and EvalYouth Asia in the Asia Pacific Eurasian Alliance of National Evaluation Associations (EvalEurasia) and EvalYouth chapter for Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Caucasus in Eurasia Middle East and North Africa Evaluation Network (EvalMENA) and EvalYouth MENA chapter in MENA European Evaluation Society in Europe African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) and the Africa wide young and emerging evaluators network (AfrEA-YEE) in Africa EvalYouth LAC chapter in Latin America and the Caribbean; and American Evaluation Association (AEA), Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) and the Academia Nacional de Evaluadores de Mexico (ACEVAL) in North America. As the Eval4Action torch went across the world, participants joined from more than 80 countries and engaged in more than 10 languages, widely amplifying the call for accelerating action for influential evaluation. To catch the Tweetathon highlights, see the Twitter Moment. As a follow up to this engagement, and to the Eval4Action Commitment Drive held last year, a Walk the Talk video drive will be held in October 2021. This new initiative invites everyone to showcase actions delivered to accelerate influential evaluation. This is because the Decade of Action is also the decade of delivery, to supercharge all actions and solutions towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by their 2030 deadline. The Eval4Action campaign is intensifying efforts to galvanise this momentum in the evaluation community and beyond, to inform a sustainable and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. For a deeper look at the Tweetathon conversation, see a snapshot of responses to the four questions that framed the all-day global conversation: What does influential evaluation mean to you? What actions for influential evaluation should be prioritized for equitable & sustainable recovery from COVID-19, and to get back on track to achieve the SDGs? How can young & emerging evaluators accelerate action for influential evaluation? What actions are you or your network taking to accelerate influential evaluation?

The Eval4Action seventh regional consultation will take place in North America on 20 April 2021, on the theme ‘Influential evaluation to advance the Sustainable Development Goals’. It is being organized by the American Evaluation Association (AEA), the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES), ACEVAL, the Young and Emerging Evaluators Network of AEA and EvalYouth Mexico in partnership with UNFPA Evaluation Office and EvalYouth Global Network. The regional consultation is an opportunity for evaluation practitioners, evaluation users, VOPE leaders, young and emerging evaluators, policy makers and other stakeholders to shape regional priorities for influential evaluation, to accelerate progress toward the Global Goals. The event also marks the launch of Eval4Action in North America. UPDATE: The regional consultation recording is available here. For any questions, please email zachary.d.tilton@wmich.edu.

The fourth Eval4Action regional consultation will take place in Europe on 21 October 2020 at 9 am EDT, 3 pm CEST. The event is organised by the European Evaluation Society (EES), the Network of Evaluation Societies in Europe (NESE) and EvalYouth Europe. This event will mark the launch of the Eval4Action campaign in Europe. The consultation will include interactive sessions to bring together diverse ideas and voices that will shape the regional evaluation agenda to accelerate the achievement of SDGs in the region. The speakers at the regional consultation include Daniele Lamarque (President, EES), Vlatko Danilov (Chair, Advisory Board, NESE), Alena Lappo (Chair, EvalYouth Europe) and Eval4Action co-leaders, Khalil Bitar (Chair, EvalYouth Global Network) and Marco Segone (Director, UNFPA Evaluation Office). Read EES’s latest blog for details on the consultation. UPDATE: The regional consultation recording is available here. For any questions, please email secretariat@europeanevaluation.org

Read updates on the campaign activities and news from partners around the world. If you would like to receive the newsletter directly in your inbox, sign up to receive Eval4Action updates here. As an individual advocate or a partner network, if you have news or information to share with the Eval4Action community, please write to contact@eval4action.org.

An all-day global #Eval4Action Tweetathon on accelerating action for influential evaluation will take place on 7 April 2021. Everyone can join this global conversation via their Twitter handle, using the hashtag #Eval4Action. The event marks one-year of the Eval4Action campaign, advancing global advocacy and multi-stakeholder partnerships to strengthen national evaluation capacities to accelerate the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, in the Decade of Action. The Tweetathon will be kicked off by the campaign co-leaders, UNFPA Evaluation Office, EvalYouth Global Network and the Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation at 4 pm EDT on 6 April. Over the next 24 hours, seven regional Tweetathons will be held across the globe, every two hours on the GMT. Eval4Action co-leaders, international partners and all regional leaders will host the all-day Tweetathon, passing the Eval4Action Torch across the globe. The Tweetathon will conclude with the launch of the ‘Walk the Talk’ video drive, a follow up to the Eval4Action Commitment Drive held in October 2020. Together, the Tweetathon and Walk the Talk are a call to action, for renewed mobilization and commitment to deliver actions for influential evaluation, to accelerate the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. Interested to learn how you can join and support the Tweetathon? Get more ideas. Spread the word on the Tweetathon by using the promotions pack.

On 7 April 2021, the Eval4Action campaign turned one! In its first year, Eval4Action has rallied a worldwide call for stronger coordination and partnerships for action towards influential evaluation. Launched when the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading across the globe, the campaign seized the moment to advocate for equitable and sustainable response and recovery from the pandemic that is backed by evidence. Through the year, the campaign put a spotlight on evaluation having the highest multiplier effect on sustainable development. In a short time, Eval4Action mobilized the global evaluation community in an unprecedented way. Today, the campaign’s 127 partners are co-creating and shaping evaluation advocacy in regions and countries, with young and emerging evaluators leading the way. Key milestones High-level launch by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem and UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake took place in June 2020. Marathon of nearly 70 motivational statements from the global evaluation community marked this event. Eval4Action was launched via regional consultations in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Europe, Eurasia and Africa. The seventh regional consultation will take place in North America on 20 April 2021. The consultations have mobilized regional and national partnerships to build national evaluation capacities. In the Asia Pacific, the consultation led to the development of the regional evaluation strategy. Regional action plans are in development in MENA, LAC and Europe. In October 2020, a global call for institutional and individual commitments to action for influential evaluation was launched, to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs at all levels. The Drive resulted in 125 voluntary promises, including high-level commitments and those from young evaluators to increase action for influential evaluation. As a follow-up, the Walk the Talk video drive will take place in October 2021. The Eval4Action Twitter Chat was held with 27 co-panelists including all regional and international partners in May 2020. The tremendous outreach of the Chat brought worldwide visibility to Eval4Action and to evaluation being a key accelerator for the SDGs, especially during COVID-19. Building on this experience, an all-day #Eval4Action Tweetathon took place on 7 April 2021. The campaign launched Eval4Action blogs to feature ideas, reflections and knowledge on strengthening and utilizing evaluation as an accelerator to achieve the SDGs. Moving forward in its second year, the campaign has co-created its global agenda via a priority survey and an informal dialogue with partners. The campaign efforts are now focused on intensifying regional and national action for influential evaluation and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for evaluation at all levels. To inspire a movement for transformational change, the values of shared ownership and participation continue to guide Eval4Action in 2021 and beyond.